A new mod for classic shooter Doom makes fun of the recent loot box controversy by limiting the amount of fun a player can have while battling the demons of hell.
Over the last few weeks, publisher Electronic Arts and developer DICE have taken a beating for their implementation of loot boxes and microtransactions in Star Wars Battlefront 2. No matter where gamers turn, there seems to be someone chiming in on the matter, or in rare cases making fun of loot boxes.
That’s just what mod creator Rip and Tear is doing with the Doom Loot Box Mod, a rework of the classic ‘90s title only with a randomized twist. In fact, the loot box mod for Doom makes the game significantly harder if players aren’t regularly opening loot boxes.
As can be seen in the video below, the Doom Loot Box Mod makes it so that the player can only pick up items from loot boxes. However, in order to open those loot boxes, players need to acquire a key from a random drop or an enemy. If the player doesn’t get a key, though, they are left to wander around shorthanded or pay for keys at the “marketplace.”
While this Doom Loot Box Mod doesn’t make any big statement about loot boxes or how predatory they can be, it does highlight how locking items behind a random number generator can ruin any experience. Doom is supposed to be a fast-paced shooter where players are swimming in ammo and weapons, but this mod keeps everything limited. It also doesn’t seem fun to play at all, which is the point.
Although loot boxes have been around for a while now, recent iterations of the randomized rewards have come under fire for limiting player’s experience within a game. Things came to a head with Middle-earth: Shadow of War, which locked stronger Orc captains behind paid loot boxes. For the most part, players could get away with never purchasing a loot box using real money – many loot boxes could be bought using in-game currency – but the endgame strongly encouraged players to spend money on loot boxes. And to make matters worse, completing the endgame revealed the true ending to Shadow of War.
But ultimately Shadow of War is a single player game and so the loot box controversy did not generate as much passion. But Star Wars Battlefront 2’s implementation, which includes items that improve online viability, drew a lot of backlash from gamers. Electronic Arts’ public image declined rapidly and its financial outlook took a turn for the worst, and now everyone is using the publisher as a punching bag for jokes, memes, and funny mods like this.
